In this year's July edition of Foreign Affairs, Senator Tim Kaine (VA-D) became the latest statesman to try his hand at the challenge of crafting an American grand strategy for the post-Cold War world. Not surprisingly he failed, both as historian and as grand strategist.

Just shy of his 25th birthday, my great-uncle S/Sgt. Oscar Rome was killed when his B-17 was shot down by Nazi fighters over Yugoslavia. 73 years later, I visited the crash site in rural Slovenia and found that his sacrifice had become a symbol of American-Slovenian friendship.

Even if Paraguay and Venezuela do not slide into total dictatorship, neither will qualify as legitimate democracies in the eyes of other Latin American states and the rest of the world. This serves as an impediment to the kind of Latin American unity necessary for the preservation of regional trading and security blocs MERCOSUR and UNASUR – organizations Paraguay and Venezuela both belonged to for several years before Venezuela was removed from MERCOSUR in late 2016 for violating the bloc’s democratic bylaws. Setbacks such as this stall the movement towards Latin American political and economic integration that underpins both organizations.

The Rohingya crisis has recently saturated western media, but the persecution of these people has intensified within the last 200 years. Paralysis in the international community aggravates generations of abuse with consequences felt within and beyond Myanmar. The current situation is devolving into ethnic cleansing, threatening a "final solution" for the Rohingya people.

In 2011, the U.S. and its allies tried to forcefully install a democratic system in Libya by removing its president of 42 years, Muammar Gaddafi. He was killed soon after by militants. Gaddafi had succeeded in improving many societal services in Libya, including education, health, and housing. According to the World Bank, in 2010 Libya had the sixth highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Africa, and its population’s life expectancy ranked number one. In his 2011 remarks on Libya, while Gaddafi was still in power, President Obama said, “Of course, there is no question that Libya – and the world – will be better off with Gaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means.” Unfortunately, Libya has been standing on shaky grounds ever since the U.S and its allies removed Gaddafi from power...

China is North Korea’s sole ally. Since intervening on behalf of North Korea during the Korean War, China has been a staunch supporter of the Communist North Korean government. In the past, China has done little to pressure North Korea to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its provocative missile tests, but that may soon change. I

The integrity of the European Union has been called into question after one of its leading members, the United Kingdom, voted to exist the community in a move known as 'Brexit'. What possible scenarios could result from this first step towards union dissolution? And how would European security be impacted if a full union break-up were to take place?

What if every global development project was designed by people in the villages and cities who were the actual beneficiaries of that project...Could this truly work, or is it just a grand-sounding idea?

Sino-African relations date back to the early 1950s and the emergence of the People's Republic of China as an international actor, but, since 2000, China's presence in Africa has exploded. Beijing's involvement extends beyond trade to influence diverse sectors, such as infrastructure construction, national development funds, natural resource extraction, health, and a Chinese migration pattern that has now settled more than 1 million Chinese in Africa. [Please note that this article is in French]